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Chefs Sara Kramer and Sarah Hymanson have debuted the second location of their California-minded rotisserie, Kismet Rotisserie, opening a walk-up window within Studio City retail center the Shops at Sportsmen’s Lodge. Restaurant is nearly two years in the making and features a transportive, serene aesthetic with fish ponds, trees, Chinese flower art, calligraphy and other touches inspired by Taoism utilizing harmonious layout and incorporating nature. The dining room is almost maze-like, with tables tucked into alcoves and in wooden structures; one table can be found under a small pagoda built for larger parties. The thought of Sichuanese cuisine brings to mind many adjectives, but “classy” is perhaps not the first. And fair enough; what mental image of Sichuanese food is more often conjured up than mountainous heaps of blood-red peppers, glorious waves of capsaicin-induced head sweats, and a conspicuous indifference to décor? Without denying its patrons either of the first two, Szechuan Mountain House, with its koi pond, bamboo groves, and delicately pruned bonsai, styles China’s most famous regional cuisine for the ambience-conscious age, happily challenging the notion that vibrancy of flavor must come at the price of presentability.
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In actuality, the ribs should be singular and the bun plural, since the dish consists of a single humongous beef rib, somewhat resembling the sort found at the city’s Texas barbecues. Alongside are the kind of folded, steamed bao you now see in nearly every Asian fast food spot. The meat has been cut from the bone, and it’s tough and gristly from being roasted too fast and too hot, which is why the same rib is cooked “low and slow” in barbecues. A new Korean fried chicken shop that uses rice flour for its coating is now open in Koreatown with a range of styles, sauces, sides and more. Rice Chicken, a new concept from Paul Kim, a former partner in Long Beach’s Ren Sushi, offers wings, boneless chicken and whole pieces available by the half or full dozen.
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In the near future she hopes to use the Porridge + Puffs space for occasional community-minded events such as cookbook dinners for guest chefs or potential collaborations with the nearby People’s Pottery Project. “I really wanted to stay true to our menu and not make any compromises just to please what we thought the local crowd would find acceptable. For us, this is what a modern-day Sichuan restaurant would actually look like in Sichuan,” says Zhu.
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“Many people in the U.S. believe that Sichuan food equals red hot chiles and peppercorn. They think that they should be sweating and crying for help to extinguish the burn, but we want to show people that Sichuan food is more than that,” says Zhu.
To be the finest food city in the country and might be biased on that count but doesn’t believe she’s wrong. Aviad “Avi” Yalin’s Avi Cue pop-up, serving shawarma roasted on a spit imported from Israel, has taken over the former Tacos 1986 location in Studio City, running as a three-week pop-up with the possibility of permanent extension (follow Avi Cue on Instagram for updates). Yalin began pandemic-spurred Avi Cue roughly four years ago, consistently drawing lines of fans for fresh pita stuffed with shaved and ground wagyu. With a bricks-and-mortar location, Yalin is offering new, larger pita and additions such as fries, loaded shawarma fries and imported Israeli fruit juice. Zhu says that they take great care in the selection of peppercorns, all of which are grown in Sichuan. It is not out of the ordinary to use more than 20 different kinds of spices for a particular dish.
15 Restaurants that Make East Village an Exciting Chinese Food Destination - Eater NY
15 Restaurants that Make East Village an Exciting Chinese Food Destination.
Posted: Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:00:00 GMT [source]
A reboot of a Chinatown spot that closed decades ago, Hwa Yuan serves great Peking duck, sesame noodles, and more in a massive space on East Broadway. Opening on an interior courtyard of a new shopping and hotel complex off Prince Street, Szechuan Mountain House was an instant hit among well-heeled dating couples out for an evening of innovative food in a romantic atmosphere. It grabbed the second-floor space formerly occupied by Grand Sichuan, itself an early advocate of the Sichuan peppercorns that have become ubiquitous in the neighborhood. “I’ve always enjoyed preparing spicy dishes to share with others since I was a child, which is why I chose to be a chef,” Zhu told The Times in an email. Bring a group to this crowd-pleasing Midtown restaurant and share a bunch of dim sum and Szechuan dishes. Szechuan Mountain House, an award-winning New York City-based restaurant group with a devoted fan base, has landed in Boston.
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The group opened a stylish new spot at 89 Brighton Avenue, in Allston, in mid-November. Our guide to the best Italian restaurants in a city that has a lot of Italian restaurants. But the most exciting aspect of Szechuan Mountain House lies in the fact that the daring menu hasn’t been made blander for a perceived East Village audience, mirroring the sorts of experimentation and quest for novelty seen heretofore mainly in the new Sichuan restaurants in Flushing — and presumably, in China itself. The original Szechuan Mountain House was one among a raft of modern and more expensive Sichuan restaurants to hit Flushing during the last three years.
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Some other classics include Sichuan dishes like mao xue wang, a stew of ox tripe, duck blood, beef tongue, chicken gizzard and other offal simmered in a peppercorn and chile-laced broth. The crispy free-range laziji chicken is stir-fried with dried chiles, dried Sichuan chile peppers, spicy bean paste, garlic, ginger, and topped with toasted sesame seeds and sliced spring onions. After opening a local chain of ramen shops, chef Ryohei Ito recently expanded his Rakkan empire with a new izakaya-inspired restaurant downtown. Housed in the former Fundamental space, Rakkan Miso Izakaya serves a limited selection of the plant-based-broth and noodles in which Rakkan Ramen excels, but a range of new items are also on offer.
The focus here is on grilled meat, seafood and vegetable skewers such as chicken thigh, Hokkaido scallop, sausage and tofu, plus popular, classic izakaya items such as karaage, katsu and donburi. A selection of hosomaki, nigiri and other sushi is also available, as is natural wine, beer, sake and a menu of sake cocktails. Also on the novel side are round shrimp fritters sided with sliced spuds, like pink ping pong balls with paddles; and planks of mung bean starch in chile oil and Sichuan peppercorns that wiggle and wobble in a glistening array.
There are Sichuan standards, too, including twice-cooked pork, kung pao shrimp, and a ma po tofu ($10.95) that manages to taste better than any other with its silky tofu, earthy fermented bean paste, and daring oiliness. When it wants to, Mountain Szechuan can serve straight-up Sichuan, and it doesn’t stint on the peppercorns. Next up was mao xue wang, a stew of ox tripe, duck blood, and beef tongue—which, legend has it, was conceived by a butcher named Wang—that arrived burbling in a lavalike soup that packed the heat of firecrackers ignited on your tongue. Originally cooked during the nineteen-forties by laborers near the meat markets along the Yangtze River, who couldn’t stand to see the gristle and offal go to waste at the end of the day, mao xue wang became the regional chop suey of the working class.
For all three diners, it was strange to see food that originated from humble peasants now nestled in opulent ceramic vessels that wouldn’t look out of place in the Forbidden Palace. “My aunt used to serve this in the same enamel basin she used to wash the vegetables,” the other Gen X-er, a Chengdu native, smirked. Peanuts are introduced to the usual ox tongue and tripe in chile oil, adding crunch to the slipperiness. Indeed, Szechuan Mountain House should receive plaudits for offering pig intestines and kidneys, fish maws, curdled blood, and the notably-named “strapping cattle throat” ($10.95) — rubbery white strips of integument that’s popular in Chongqing, a major municipality in southwest China. Some dishes require as many as 20 spices, with a rainbow of peppercorns imported from Sichuan for the job.
Rice chicken also offers fried chicken sandwiches, salads, cup-bap in spicy pork, beef bulgogi and other options, and sides like corn cheese, fried sausage and tteokbokki. The ma-la dishes feature the hot-and-numbing peppercorn that’s emblematic of the cuisine. But not all of Zhu’s cooking features its spicy heat and anesthetizing effect. Sautéed vegetables and especially the dishes from the “traditional cuisine” menu, such as braised pork atop shredded, preserved vegetables, showcase the flavors of the region without chiles. While the focus remains on Sichuan cuisine, along with most of the small chain’s iconic dishes, some recipes and ingredients have been altered for the Los Angeles location to utilize more local ingredients. The signature fried rice is ramified with mustard greens, while a dish of fried lotus roots and celery provides a spectacular snap that you can hear as diners around the table attack it, with a subtle flavor that you’ll dream of that evening.
La-zi chicken, another Szechuan Mountain House specialty, marinates its diced chicken and deep-fries then stir-fries it with a small mountain of dried peppers, peppercorns and sesame. The menu lists dishes as either ma-la, traditional or modernist, along with categories for vegetables, soups, cold items and noodles and rice. Other hard-to-find Sichuan dishes on the menu include Qian Jiang-style chicken giblets with pickled pepper and mala chicken stew. Szechuan Mountain House also features offal like pig intestine, tripe, beef tongue, kidney, chicken giblets, curdled blood, and fish maw. There is also a wide variety of vegetables, as well as the popular golden baked salted corn kernels with salted egg yolk, which tastes like creamy, buttery, elevated popcorn, and an expansive vegetarian menu.
The 5,000 square-foot space inside the Pearl Plaza was a feat years in the making. The space sports similar designs to the NYC locations, with koi ponds, cascading waterfalls, bamboo groves, Chinese flower art, calligraphy, lanterns, and ceramics. The Boston location marks the fourth restaurant opening for Szechuan Mountain House.
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